Vizag Port gets equipped with IT

HYDERABAD: In its bid to extend the benefits of information technology to as many sectors as possible, the government of Andhra Pradesh has taken a special initiative to empower the Visakhapatnam (Vizag) port. The ambitious Rs 18.2 crore IT project of the Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT) has paved the way for the Port Trust to emerge as the number one port city in India, in terms of technology.

The project, which envisages complete streamlining of the operational systems for enhancing efficiency with cutting edge technology of convergence, is the first of its kind in the Indian port sector. The project took four years for completion and is at par with the information technology projects implemented in Port Singapore Authority and European Container Terminal, Rotterdam.

"The other ports in India also have such projects but they have not materialized from their drawing rooms. Moreover, we have not used the Ethernet technology at all in our project, so this makes this project as one of its kind within the country," said SR Rao, chairman, VPT.

The project was completely in-house and has integrated all the existing technologies. The notable features of this project are complete integration with wireless and Internet connectivity and Storage Area Network for storage solutions unique in India. The project also provides in-house web hosting facility for hosting web page on the net.

The integration of wireless and Internet connectivity would help the port to issue ship bills in 24 hours. "Prior to this, we used to issue ship bills in a fortnight's time, but with this technology we can issue the ship bills online within 24 hours, so this has reduced the way we complete our day-to-day activities over here,'' Rao added.

The ATM protocol, which is convergence-oriented, can provide any user with 100 mbps of bandwidth for utilization. The hi-tech video conferencing under this project would help the chairman to interact with 40 people at different locations at a time. The system software consists entirely of Unix operating system and the database is Oracle-based parallel service. "After much deliberation, we decided on Unix because of the cost factor as it is much cheaper when compared to other software available in the market," he explained.